Dallas’ 'iLLey’ helped the team pull off a smooth comeback in a chaotic match.

Clayster (James Eubanks), left, celebrates with Illy (Indervir Dhaliwal) after a successful round as Dallas Empire competes against Chicago Huntsmen in the Call of Duty League Launch Weekend at the Armory in Minneapolis, Minn., January 24, 2020.(Courtney Perry / Special Contributor)

Few things went smoothly in the Dallas Empire’s 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Guerrillas in either team’s first online Call of Duty League match Friday evening. The game froze, gun play was abnormal and a map was forfeited by Los Angeles.

Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal was able to do what the Empire struggled to do in the opening months of the season, though: pull off a smooth comeback.

The Empire opened the fourth map down 80 points in hardpoint. They had been in those situations several times preceding their recent success, and couldn’t complete a comeback. There were several instances against their rival, the Chicago Huntsmen, where they went down big and still made it a close match. But no victory.

iLLeY was the catalyst for the Empire, who erased a 30-point lead with less than a minute left in the match with three huge eliminations, giving his squad the advantage.

“We call it ‘ice,’ the Empire’s veteran star James “Clayster" Eubanks said after the match. “At the beginning of the year for the first couple months we had no ice at all and no clutch factor. We were always losing close games and I think it helped us in the end because we lost so many close ones over a short period that we understood how to be perfect at the end of games.”

Clayster, who came up huge in the Empire’s tournament win in Los Angeles in early March, credited iLLeY for his huge play, but struggled to feel positive about anything else that happened in the match.

That was to no fault of the Empire.

Los Angeles started the previous map a man down. Guerrillas player Ulysses “AquA” Silva lagged out of the match and that gave the Empire a 5-4 man advantage. The bigger issue came when another Los Angeles player, Jacob “Decemate” Cato left the match after the Empire built a significant lead.

The match ended early, and the fate of the round was in the hands of the officials.

“I was actually the one that was informed by the referee that the ruling was going to be a forfeit,” Empire head coach Ray “Rambo” Lussier told The Dallas Morning News in a phone interview. “We didn’t have a choice. I asked if we could replay the map and they said there was no option with the ruling and it would be the same decision for anyone that goes through that same issue this year.”

The round could’ve been replayed had Decemate not left the match, but that served as a learning moment for everyone involved. Rambo said the Empire guys now know what can happen if they leave a match early, and that they would do their best to avoid a forfeit in the future for themselves.

Unfortunately, for either team, that wasn’t the only connection issue they endured.

“I don’t want to cast too much negativity on this online league and on the product we are putting out but it was borderline unplayable at best and completely unplayable at worst,” Clayster said. “It was a rough go at it today, I’m sure for all the teams.”

Map two and map three were when the connection was the most patchy, he added. There would be freezes during the game, where the characters would be motionless and then return to the spot they were in moments before. That was frustrating for Rambo to even watch, let alone for teams to play through. The Empire were able to maintain level heads and understand that this was a process.

“It’s almost like a first event of the year where you go through hiccups and once everything is figured out you never have to deal with those hiccups again,” Rambo said. “I expect things to get better even through the weekend, not just waiting for the next event. Even tomorrow and Sunday it should be cleaner and better.”

The positive note for the Empire was that they were still strong enough in their team play to win despite uncontrollable elements. Rambo admitted that some lag could have benefited either team depending on the situation in the map. While connection could be arbitrary for the Empire in one moment, it could’ve cost the Guerrillas an elimination and vice versa.

Rambo and the Empire didn’t linger on that, though. Instead, they were pleased with the progression of their own team play. The veterans like Clayster and Ian “Crimsix” Porter were role models for the younger guys that proved again they were elite talents in an unconventional match.

“I think Clay and Crim did a good job of handling the in-game stuff to make sure we were focused on the task at hand,” Rambo said. “The connection was a shame and an issue with the game right now that needs to be fixed but the players did a really good job of keeping their communication strong and trying not to tilt.”

The Empire continue their home series tournament run on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Even if the connection is patchy, and the Empire are down big, Clayster said his confidence in his team has never been stronger.

Sean Collins, Staff Writer. Sean started at The Dallas Morning News in 2020 and covers North Texas esports, focusing on the Dallas Fuel and Dallas Empire. He covered high school and Kansas State athletics at The Manhattan Mercury. Sean graduated from the University of Kansas in 2018, where he worked for the University Daily Kansan as a sports editor covering Kansas hoops.